Pages

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Corazon

I attended a work function last week at Corazon, at 5th and Baylor. One of my main reasons for wanting to attend was to check out the food! I had not been since it made the transition from Castle Hill Cafe. Our group was in the upstairs private room, and we were offered an abbreviated menu.My coworker and I were actually a bit early, so we enjoyed happy hour drinks at the bar -- she a (strong!) prickly pear margaritas and me a tasty sangria. Sitting at the bar allowed me to take in the decor, which I really liked -- lots of Moroccan lanterns that cast cool shadows on the walls and ceiling.

Once settled upstairs, we had a choice of sopa de elote or southwest Caesar salad. I had the soup, and as described on the menu, it was light-bodied. Nice whole corn kernels, and the green chile on top gave it a nice kick.

We had our choice of five main courses, steak, chicken, fish, shrimp, or vegetarian. I had the chicken mole enchiladas; the presentation was quite nice, but the mole sauce was weak. It was rather thin, and really only tasted of chiles and cocoa, and none of the bananas, raisins, almonds or pumpkin seeds that were listed in the menu description. {So if you've been paying attention here lately, you'll know I've had two chicken mole enchilada dishes and neither was spectacular.....someday....}

One coworker had the sauteed Gulf fish (no specific type was specified) served over a savory bread pudding.

They plated a trio of desserts, from the left, peanut butter pie, which was incredible, mocha toffee torte and white chocolate almond cheesecake. I wonder if they make their desserts in-house or get them from somewhere else.

Again, I loved the interior of Corazon -- there were interesting pieces at every turn. For me, the verdict is still out on the food, it does seem to have potential, but the mole sauce was the weak link.

Sorry for the lower-quality of the photos; they were all taken with my phone, and I didn't use flash for the food pics in an effort to be inconspicuous during our work presentation.

There are a few nice things on Corazon's menu, my favorite being the Interior Mexican chicken salad with blue corn empanadas, a menu carryover from the Castle Hill days. But many of the other items just seem uninspired to me, including the mole enchiladas you tried. If you find good mole in this town, let me know!

Even before I was really a "foodie" I was never really impressed with Castle Hill -- I always felt like they were trying to do too many flavors in any one dish, and inevitably, you couldn't taste some of those supposed flavors. I had seen the empanadas on the full menu, which did sound good!

As for moles....it's been awhile since I've had it, but I've always like the one at Manuel's downtown. Sazon's is decent. Hmmm, might have to put the query out to our fellow food bloggers! :)